Well... Here it finally is...

I know...I know Sarah Lilly is the worst blogger ever. But I am here now and that is all that matters. So a lot has been going on. For starters I took a two week vacation from work and travelled to Hong Kong, Thailand, and China with my friend Ali from America. It was so great and we had the best time. There were times it was so hot we thought we would die, and times we thought we would never make it to where we were going, but we always made it and it was always an adventure.

I do have to say I am very grateful for my dad and Expeditors on this trip because they saved us a few times. My dad while I was planning, kept making me have all of these lists with everything written down of where we were going to be on which day and it got to be a hassle. He also called every Expeditors person he knew in all of the areas we were going to and let them know we were going to be there on specific days. So while I was planning I was slightly annoyed. I am 24 I can plan my own trips I would think to myself. However those guys from EXPD came in very handy. 

First off in Hong Kong we stayed with a family and they were great and had the most beautiful apartment, they also took us out to meals, told us how to get places, and drove us to Stanley Market.

In Thailand we were on our own and only had one major mishap when we missed a flight to Phuket because our crazy Bangkok taxi driver decided to miss our turn and take us all they way around Bangkok. Luckily we had already decided on a price and did not have to pay extra, even though it took us an extra 30 minutes to get to the airport. 

Then in Beijing we were on our own for the first and most of the second day, until T.H. came and picked us up for dinner with another co-worker and took us for duck. then gave us the company van and driver for the next day to take us all around the city including a part of the Great Wall. He even helped us get plane tickets to Xian when the train we wanted to take was booked. He also had someone in Xian take us to dinner and drive us out to the Terracotta soldiers the next day, take us to the museum, and back to the airport. He also got us a hotel right by the airport. 

Lets just say we had a ton of help on this trip and that made it so enjoyable. I will be putting pictures up later. 

Hiking

So I have no idea what is up with all these people and hiking. I don't know if all these families think that Americans just love hiking or what, but I have now been on about 4 home visits in one month where we have gone hiking. I have been to Sun Moon Lake, Dakeng, a tea farm, and a dairy farm. And at each one of these places I have had to climb a dang mountain. I guess the good thing about all this hiking is I get to see more of beautiful Taiwan, hang out with my kids, and get in shape. The bad side is I look like crap in all of my pictures so I apologize for that. but here are some pictures of my hiking experiences here in Taiwan. 

Cows and Lugang

I know... I know I said every Sunday I would post and obviously I have already failed. But here we go for the last week. Once again school is no different, I think my kids are doing well and I am finally finding interesting ways to teach grammar. Have I mentioned I hate English. Chinese class is still going okay, my goal is to be able to have a simple conversation by the time I go home.
This weekend Hanna and I had more home visits. They were a good time. On Saturday we wnet with Ivy and her family, she is one of my 2B-1's. She is adorable. They took us to a farm where we checked out cows and fed them bottles and grass. Then the main event... I milked a cow!!! Then drank the milk!!!1 It was actually pretty good, just a little warm. Ivy did not want to do it because as she told Hanna and I the utters looked like a boy (with a gesture to the crotch area). Hanna thinks that her and Ivy can be friends outside of school, after that comment. Then we ate ice cream made from the cows at the farm. Then we went to lunch by our scool. It wasa ton of food. After that we went to Ivy's to play Wii, which lasted forever. But it was fun, Hanna and I were both getting tired when they asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. We said sure and ate pizza with them. It was way good. After which I had a coughing attack, since I have been sick. We are finally thinking we can go home, but then they ask if we want to watcha movie. Hanna asks if I am up for it so I say sure. We watched Slumdog Millionaire and did not get home till 9:30. It was a long day.
Then on Sunday Hanna and I went to Lugang with two of our students Ella and Minnie. They are our only two morning SPE's and so cute. They speak English amazingly. We first went with just Minnie, her mom, and cousin to the Folk Arts Museum, then we met up with Ella's family at a temple, where it was the goddess birthday so there were tons of people bringing gifts and eating food it was cool. Then we went to a park and fed the fish. Then ate lunch. After that we went to a historic shopping street where I saw on of my 2B-2's so that was funny. Hanna, the girls, and I all held hands and sang Christmas songs, we made quite a scene. After that we headed home, but I was having a killer migraine and was coughing...again. I had this really bad coughing fit that I couldn't stop so we had to stop and get me water, which helped a lot. We got home around 4:45. I then took a nap until 6:30ish. Then Rebeckah had some people over for dinner and Leslie, Hanna, and I went out to eat. I didn't feel good so I didn't eat. Well that was the week I had. And next weekend there will be 3 days of adventures to right about so stay tuned.

Palm Readers and Bowling

So I realize that it has been over a month since I have posted a blog and I apologize. But my new goal is to post every Sunday about the last week. So I am not going to worry about the previous month just last week. Most of my weeks are the same, work a bajillion hours, go to tons of meetings, beg the other teachers to have their stuff in on time, and teach my classes. This week was adding up to be no different until Thursday. I teach two follow-up class 2B-1 and 2B-2, but Hanna has to teach my 2B-2's on Thursdays because of how the schedule works out. Usually this goes okay even though 2B-2's can be monsters. Well I guess Thursday was a particularly bad day which ended up with books being thrown and kids threatening to get Hanna fired (don't worry she won't be). Let's just say Friday saw a lot of tear stained faces as they came into class after having to go see not only Hanna for one-on-one talks, but also Sherry (my boss). It was pretty funny. Then Friday I got to pull a McGuyver as Hanna and I fixed her tub drain with a fork, screwdriver, and floss (you always need floss). Now to palm readers and bowling. Saturday was shaping up to be a boring rainy day (it has been raining for 3 days). Until Molly called, she is one of our Tawianese friends. She invited us to go to Taichung with her, only Hanna and I went. First we had some adventures at the most crowded Costco I have ever seen. Seriously it was hard to walk in their. Then we headed over to a friends house and ate a ton of food and watched Enchanted. One of the ladies there (the landlady) is actually a palm reader and can see the future. So of course I had to have my palm read. She said that my parents have a great marriage and they really love me, I am also very smart because I have a Confucius eye on my thumb (if the lines on the inside of your thumb at the first knuckle form an oval it means you are smart). She also said I will get married before Hanna and I will have a great life. She told me I should stay in Taiwan, but I don't think I will. After this we all went bowling at 11 pm. It was Molly, Hanna, Sue, her 10 year old daughter Sandy, Collin, Derek, Jeanette, and some kid I never met. I came in 3rd the first time and 1st the second. It was a good night. Well that is all for week one of the weekly blog posts.

Food

So in my family I am known as the pickiest of eaters. They joke that I don't eat anything. So Taiwan has been semi rough on me to actually find food that I will eat. Basically I eat at the same three places, or I find dumplings cause those are usually safe. But I just want my family to know how good I have been about being an adventurous eater lately. On Tuesday my boss took us all out to dinner and our two appetizers were pickled radishes which were ok and pig ear. Which I want them to know I did try. At dinner we also had huge shrimp still with legs and eyes (I did not eat) and a huge flounder fish that kept looking at me because it still had its eyes (I did not eat that either). The rest of the food was ok. Then on Friday one of our students, Kitty, her parents took us to this amazing restaurant. We each got to pick an appetizer, antipasta, salad, soup, palette cleanser (it came in a shot glass), a main dish, a drink (most of us got a mango shake), and a desert!!! The appetizer was shrimp and aspargus in an amazing sauce, and I did eat one shrimp. I also had the cheese and beef antipasta, a salad, pumpkin mushroom soup, steak, mango shake, and ice cream with a chocolate bag!! This was probably the most amazing meal of my life. Now today... Today three of my students Edward, Trevor (twins), and Vincent invited me and teacher Hanna to their house for a chinese new year dinner. 90% of the dinner was fish. I had a shrimp that still had the legs on it, Trevor peeled it for me. I ate the fish, which I tried to sneak only a little, but the mother gave me more. A meatball made with shrimp, and some soup that had octopus and squid, I did however avoid the meat in that one.  So I want my family to know that I am embracing the great food around here. And I wanted to tell my dad that yes, they do eat dog around here, its just hard to find and usually the stray dogs around here will mess with you after you eat dog, because they can sense that you ate one of them. I have a personal source on that one. 

What Should I Do?

So here I am in Taiwan with plenty of things to do and see, but we are sitting here 2 days before Chinese New Year and we have no set plans. I think it is because there is too much to do and see, we can't make up our minds. We were invited to go east, some friends are headed to Taipei, we hear the islands off the west coast are great. So what should we do? Right now we are looking at going to Taipei, but rumor has it the a lot of people leave during Chinese New Year and less markets are open. How lame would that be if we went and the town was shut down. The only thing I care about seeing is the Pingsi Lantern Festival. Its where they light hundreds of lanterns that people have written wishes on for the new year and then they are released into the air and they float. It looks so neat. It starts on the 26th and goes for about 9 days. So I hope I get to see it. I will keep you informed on the plans. 

Two Weeks

So I have been here for about two weeks now and I have written nothing. Sorry about that. The first week I did not have Internet so it was not my fault. Anyway let me catch you up on what has been going on. I started work a week ago Monday and for some reason my boss made me head teacher. I have no idea why, so basically I can tell the other four teachers to do whatever I want them to. J/K But I do have more work, which includes observations, evaluations, testing new students, organizing home visits, making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be, covering for them when they are sick, plus my own classes that I have to teach. And the extra bonus of not getting paid any extra. But it has not been too bad everyone here is great about picking up their own slack and having great ideas. 

I love the kids here (most of the time) sometimes I want to kick them out of class. I have found that bribery works really well. Or threaten them with beatings. Whatever I am in the mood for. Not really we usually threaten them with sending them to Sherry (my boss) and that usually does the trick. 

The town I live in is fun. Everyone is way friendly and really want to practice their English with us. Or they will speak in Chinese even though we shake our heads and say we don't understand. Its a good time. We still have a lot to explore, and luckily I have 6 months to do that. Until next time...